AUSTIN -- El Paso Independent School District Chief Business Officer Kenneth Parker is retiring, citing the "epic political battle" brewing between the school board and the state's education agency and frustration about increasing costs for forensic auditors who are investigating the district's cheating scheme.

Parker, 67, was set to leave the district at the end of February after delaying his retirement several times, but he decided to wrap up his work on Jan. 31 for reasons that included not wanting to get caught in a fight between the school board and Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams.

Trustees, who are challenging Williams' decision to replace them with an appointed board of managers, told Parker that he would be expected to travel to Austin on Feb.7 for a hearing with the Texas Education Agency to testify that they had been good stewards of the district's finances.

Parker said he prepared the report and information as directed by the school board, but he believes one of the trustees should make the presentation instead. He said the dispute over whether the board should be stripped of its power because of the cheating scheme is not his fight to wage.

"I didn't want to get pulled into this conflict that's going on with the board and TEA," Parker said.

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"It has really nothing to do with the financial side of the district. I've tried to stay out of those confrontational situations and, at this point in time, I don't want to get wrapped up in that."

Board trustees could not be reached for comment on this story. TEA officials declined to comment.

The trustees asked the TEA to review Williams' decision in December to replace them with a board of managers after he said they had lost the trust of the community, which not only wanted action taken against administrators who harmed children but also was seeking answers about how the cheating scheme flourished under the board's watch.

Former EPISD Superintendent Lorenzo García is in federal prison after pleading guilty to two charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud that included improperly failing or promoting students and pushing others out of school to keep them from taking the test that determines whether a campus meets federal accountability requirements.

Trustees have argued that Williams' decision is not warranted and that García fooled many people including the TEA, which twice cleared the district of wrongdoing. A group of politicians including U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, several of El Paso's state lawmakers and County Judge Veronica Escobar publicly supported the action taken by Williams, stating in a letter that "the board's poor decisions and failures to act have significantly eroded the public trust."

Parker said that while he does not want to be swept up in the back-and-forth between trustees and the state, he believes the district is being forced to spend too much on outside auditors after the TEA failed to catch the cheating scheme two years ago.

The agency in August ordered the school district to hire a forensic auditor to identify the structural defects within the district that allowed the cheating scheme to flourish and remain unchecked. The agency also required that the school district hire an outside company to oversee and monitor test administration and test security for the 2012-13 school year.

"The district is having to pay enormous amounts of money to do what TEA and their staff should have done two to three years ago," Parker said. "Yes, I think probably the work needs to be done. I think their rates are astonishing."

The original contract, which ends March 1, was given to Austin-based Weaver for $579,685 and up to $8,000 in travel expenses.

Costs of the contract have already exceeded $719,000, and travel costs have reached $67,334.

The firm will ask the school board on Tuesday to pay those extra expenses and consider approving additional work that could cost up to $499,750 more in new fees and new travel expenses of up to $67,500.

Parker said the initial cost of more than $500,000 now has the potential to exceed $1.3 million.

He said the TEA has given Weaver "a blank check to find as much as possible to support TEA's removal of the Board of Trustees."

Parker also said that the agency's requirement that the school district hire an outside company to oversee test administration seems like a misuse of nearly $400,000 because the cheating scheme did not involve changing answers on the tests but rather kept students from taking the tests.

"There never was any question about testing procedures," he said. "The problem was about who was being tested, and so even this test monitoring that is going on doesn't look at that or consider that. I've been told by TEA officials that it was a knee-jerk reaction to try to do something at EPISD."

Parker, who earns more than $150,000 annually, said he was not aware of the cheating scheme while García was at the school district. He said that he does not want his retirement to be confused with the recent wave of employees who have been fired or forced to leave because of the cheating investigation.

Parker, who has been with the EPISD for eight years, said he had been talking about retiring since February 2011, but when García was arrested in August 2011, he decided to stay until a superintendent was named so that the new leader could select his replacement.

In October, Parker said he would stay through February to help the district and the Weaver group with the financial side of the forensic audit, but he said he now does not know how long that will take because "they keep on changing the focus to the forensic investigative side." He said the investigation into wrongdoing has not touched his office.

"I just have a lot of frustration about how this whole process is taking place," Parker said.

"Fortunately, I'm in a position where I don't have to stay in the district to watch this, and I've chosen that it's time to move on.

"I haven't been coerced. I haven't been pushed," he said. "In fact, I've been encouraged to stay to try to help the district through these troubled times, but I've been doing this for a year-and-a-half and I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet."

Zahira Torres may be reached at ztorres@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.